Backstory Party!
Alright, people, let's get go through the pain in the ass part of playing backstory until we drop dead!
BASE CHARACTER PROFILE -- PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE SHOULD ONLY BE ONE WORD ANSWERS (Except for the last one... and use your common sense for others too.)
Name: Sen Tanaka
LJ: sen_tanaka
Played By: Takeshi Kaneshiro
Birthdate: Jun 01st, 1988
Age: 17
Gender: male
Wand: 11“ Cherry, unicorn hair core
Blood: pureblood
Birthplace: London, England
Location: London/Tokyo/Kyoto
Status or Class: upperclass
Race/Culture/Religion: Japanese-Chinese/Japanese/Shinto
Family:
Guardian #1's Name/Age/Occupation: Setsuna Tanaka - deceased
Guardian #2's Name/Age/Occupation: Fei Cui Liu - deceased
Siblings' Names/Age/Occupations: Sakura Tanaka/22/fortune teller
Pet Name/Species: n/a
OWL Scores:
Astronomy: O
Charms: E
DADA: A
Herbology: A
History of Magic: D
Potions: O
Transfiguration: D
Other Subject #1: Ancient Runes E
Other Subject #2: Divination O
Optional Other Subject: Arithmancy E
NEWT Scores: (Put N/a if it is not applicable): [expected scores]
Astronomy: O
Charms: A
DADA:
Herbology:
History of Magic:
Potions: O
Transfiguration:
Optional Other Subject #1: Ancient Runes E
Optional Other Subject #2: Divination O
Optional Other Subject #3: Arithmancy E
10 Words to describe your character: artistic, vain, polite, patient, controlled, intelligent, hedonistic, observant, cautious, secretive
EXTENDED APPLICATION -- PLEASE DO AT LEAST A PARAGRAPH ON EACH OF THESE, UNLESS THEY ARE STATED TO BE OPTIONAL
Personality:
Sen is a well balanced person. He’s usually rather laid back and friendly towards other people, however, he’s always careful to keep a certain distance. Treat your elders with respect, do not wear your heart on your sleeve, family always comes first, never act rashly and always keep one third of your true feelings to yourself, his grandmother had taught him and he’s been acting on those principles all his life.
Strengths: Both magical and personality:
Sen can grasp new concepts quickly and integrate him into his own to develop new ideas. Only few of them can be put into practise but he enjoys playing around with ideas in his head without paying attention to their practicability. The boy likes to draw and spends much time on calligraphy. He’s also a very good cook and cares a great deal about outward appearances. His friends can always count on him no matter what.
Weaknesses: Both magical and personality:
Subjects that require using a wand and Sen don’t mix. There is no satisfying explanation to why he fails at it more often than not and it does frustrate him sometimes but now that graduation is so close, he doesn’t care about it so much anymore. His attention span or rather the lack of it causes him some trouble sometimes. If something isn’t fun, he doesn’t think it’s worth doing anymore.
While Sen is friendly and nice to everyone, he does have a slightly racist streak inside of him. Coming from an old Japanese family, he believes that interracial marriage is wrong despite or rather because his own parents have disrespected that rule. During his childhood he has been met with great hostility and sometimes hated his parents for allowing their children to be of non pure Japanese blood. However, since he’s met Nami, a Taiwanese girl, he has started to change his beliefs gradually. Still he doesn’t fool around with non Asian girls.
Fears:
Sen’s doesn’t have any deep reaching, mind crippling fears. At the age of seventeen he worries about gaining weight, loosing his good looks, not being able to achieve top marks in the NEWTs, admitting to having feelings for his best friend (wait, that’s a big one) and other such things.
History:
Sen’s parents both attended Hogwarts and got married after they graduated despite the concerns of their families. Their two children, Sakura and Sen who were both born in England. When Sen was two and his sister six the small family moved to Japan to live with the Tanakas in Tokyo. Due to their mixed heritage the two children were met with hostility from their peers and led rather isolated lives there, relying on each other for entertainment and company. When the letter from Hogwarts arrived, their parents were more than happy to send their children back to England, hoping that their lives there would be less lonely. Sakura went first and four years later Sen received a letter, too.
When Sen was fourteen, his parents died in an accident, leaving him and his sister in the care of their grandparents in Japan. At first the boy feared that they would pull him out of school but they encouraged his education. They provided him with a flat in London when he turned sixteen but requested that he spend the better part of the summer holidays with them to study Japanese magic. His sister has returned to Japan and works as a fortune teller in Kyoto much to the dismay of their grandmother who had hoped the girl would either get married, have children and be a proper wife or aspire to head priestess and protector of the Sakura Shrine which is under the Tanaka clan’s protection.
The Tanaka family is rumoured to be the clan of assassins in Japan. A legend says that said clan indebted themselves to the spirit that guards the Sakura tree at the temple hundreds of years ago and are obliged to repay this debt in blood (won’t have any significance in game, however, it is important for the family history and possible backstory).
Physical Description: At the least, provide base details of build, height, eye/hair colour, and complexion.
Height/build: around5’10”, average
Eye colour: dark brown
Hair colour: black
Significant Relationships:
Family:
Sakura Tanaka: his sister, works in Kyoto as a fortune teller and keeps sending him packages with food, singing letters and other curious items she picks up at the night markets in Japan.
Tanaka Grandparents: His grandmother, Arashi, was a temple maiden at the Sakura shrine before she married Sen’s grandfather, Kira, and inherited the position of high priestess from her husband’s mother. Kira has never been interested in the spiritual/magical side and has left those matters to his wife while he became a cook. Today he owns and cooks at a very successful restaurant in Kyoto.
Friends:
Von Courtlandt: Sen’s best friend since their first year at Hogwarts. During the last year he has developed a small crush on him but is very deep in denial about that. Sen became the godfather of Von’s son Ezra. He has signed a magical contract in which he swears never to tell anyone about the little boy unless he wants his bits to fall off.
Jojo Jenkins: They met through Von. Jojo is the main reason that Sen didn’t fail miserably at the wand magic subjects and in return he helps the Gryffindor with the theoretical part of their classes.
Nicodemus Florentine: They are roommates and became friends during their first year at Hogwarts. Sen is used to looking out for the other boy who used to get into trouble quite often.
Rowan Foxkith: Rowan is ignorant, elitist, bitchy and a snob. No one (including themselves) actually knows how and why they became friends but they enjoy each others company and don’t care what everyone else thinks about them.
Special Considerations: Such as broom ownership, being an animagus, famous in some form, or a metamorphmagus. All are subject to mod approval. Sen knows quite a bit about Japanese magic based on the Shinto religion, too, that doesn’t rely on wands but uses talismans and amulets. He’s given Von a guardian spirit in the form of a fish. (This won’t play any major role in game, meaning he’s not going to walk around and perform wandless magic all the time.)
COMMUNITY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS -- ONLY ANSWER THE SECTION APPLICABLE TO YOUR CHARACTER
Hogwarts:
Year: 7th
House: Ravenclaw
Why are they in that house? Curiosity and thirst for knowledge have always been a driving force behind Sen’s actions.
Postion: Prefect
ROLEPLAY SAMPLE -- PLEASE ENSURE THAT THIS IS IN THIRD PERSON NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Summer holidays 2005, Taipei, Taiwan
Sen darted around the corner into a small alley and slid underneath the trash canisters. Pressing himself against the ground he tried to get his breathing under control. The shouting came closer and he squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Please, please, please, go away, go away,’ he chanted in his head. Finally, the voices moved away and faded in the distance.
The boy emerged from his hiding place and pushed himself up. His shirt was dirty and slightly torn, a bruise was forming under his left eye and there was a little blood dripping from his nose. With a sigh, he wiped at it with the back of his hand. Why did he subject himself to that again and again? Ah, right, because Nami was the prettiest girl in Taiwan, heck the whole world and she said she loved him and that she didn’t care that he was half Japanese. A grin tugged at the corner of his lips. As long as she didn’t mind, Sen wouldn’t mind the occasional beating from her brothers and cousins. Soon he would graduate and he’d take her with him to England where no one would care whether they were Chinese or Japanese. They’d just be another couple of foreigners; something he could live with.
MOD-ONLY QUESTIONS -- THESE WILL ONLY BE KNOWN TO THE MODS
Character Secrets: none
Character Alliance: none
BASE CHARACTER PROFILE -- PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE SHOULD ONLY BE ONE WORD ANSWERS (Except for the last one... and use your common sense for others too.)
Name: Sen Tanaka
LJ: sen_tanaka
Played By: Takeshi Kaneshiro
Birthdate: Jun 01st, 1988
Age: 17
Gender: male
Wand: 11“ Cherry, unicorn hair core
Blood: pureblood
Birthplace: London, England
Location: London/Tokyo/Kyoto
Status or Class: upperclass
Race/Culture/Religion: Japanese-Chinese/Japanese/Shinto
Family:
Guardian #1's Name/Age/Occupation: Setsuna Tanaka - deceased
Guardian #2's Name/Age/Occupation: Fei Cui Liu - deceased
Siblings' Names/Age/Occupations: Sakura Tanaka/22/fortune teller
Pet Name/Species: n/a
OWL Scores:
Astronomy: O
Charms: E
DADA: A
Herbology: A
History of Magic: D
Potions: O
Transfiguration: D
Other Subject #1: Ancient Runes E
Other Subject #2: Divination O
Optional Other Subject: Arithmancy E
NEWT Scores: (Put N/a if it is not applicable): [expected scores]
Astronomy: O
Charms: A
DADA:
Herbology:
History of Magic:
Potions: O
Transfiguration:
Optional Other Subject #1: Ancient Runes E
Optional Other Subject #2: Divination O
Optional Other Subject #3: Arithmancy E
10 Words to describe your character: artistic, vain, polite, patient, controlled, intelligent, hedonistic, observant, cautious, secretive
EXTENDED APPLICATION -- PLEASE DO AT LEAST A PARAGRAPH ON EACH OF THESE, UNLESS THEY ARE STATED TO BE OPTIONAL
Personality:
Sen is a well balanced person. He’s usually rather laid back and friendly towards other people, however, he’s always careful to keep a certain distance. Treat your elders with respect, do not wear your heart on your sleeve, family always comes first, never act rashly and always keep one third of your true feelings to yourself, his grandmother had taught him and he’s been acting on those principles all his life.
Strengths: Both magical and personality:
Sen can grasp new concepts quickly and integrate him into his own to develop new ideas. Only few of them can be put into practise but he enjoys playing around with ideas in his head without paying attention to their practicability. The boy likes to draw and spends much time on calligraphy. He’s also a very good cook and cares a great deal about outward appearances. His friends can always count on him no matter what.
Weaknesses: Both magical and personality:
Subjects that require using a wand and Sen don’t mix. There is no satisfying explanation to why he fails at it more often than not and it does frustrate him sometimes but now that graduation is so close, he doesn’t care about it so much anymore. His attention span or rather the lack of it causes him some trouble sometimes. If something isn’t fun, he doesn’t think it’s worth doing anymore.
While Sen is friendly and nice to everyone, he does have a slightly racist streak inside of him. Coming from an old Japanese family, he believes that interracial marriage is wrong despite or rather because his own parents have disrespected that rule. During his childhood he has been met with great hostility and sometimes hated his parents for allowing their children to be of non pure Japanese blood. However, since he’s met Nami, a Taiwanese girl, he has started to change his beliefs gradually. Still he doesn’t fool around with non Asian girls.
Fears:
Sen’s doesn’t have any deep reaching, mind crippling fears. At the age of seventeen he worries about gaining weight, loosing his good looks, not being able to achieve top marks in the NEWTs, admitting to having feelings for his best friend (wait, that’s a big one) and other such things.
History:
Sen’s parents both attended Hogwarts and got married after they graduated despite the concerns of their families. Their two children, Sakura and Sen who were both born in England. When Sen was two and his sister six the small family moved to Japan to live with the Tanakas in Tokyo. Due to their mixed heritage the two children were met with hostility from their peers and led rather isolated lives there, relying on each other for entertainment and company. When the letter from Hogwarts arrived, their parents were more than happy to send their children back to England, hoping that their lives there would be less lonely. Sakura went first and four years later Sen received a letter, too.
When Sen was fourteen, his parents died in an accident, leaving him and his sister in the care of their grandparents in Japan. At first the boy feared that they would pull him out of school but they encouraged his education. They provided him with a flat in London when he turned sixteen but requested that he spend the better part of the summer holidays with them to study Japanese magic. His sister has returned to Japan and works as a fortune teller in Kyoto much to the dismay of their grandmother who had hoped the girl would either get married, have children and be a proper wife or aspire to head priestess and protector of the Sakura Shrine which is under the Tanaka clan’s protection.
The Tanaka family is rumoured to be the clan of assassins in Japan. A legend says that said clan indebted themselves to the spirit that guards the Sakura tree at the temple hundreds of years ago and are obliged to repay this debt in blood (won’t have any significance in game, however, it is important for the family history and possible backstory).
Physical Description: At the least, provide base details of build, height, eye/hair colour, and complexion.
Height/build: around5’10”, average
Eye colour: dark brown
Hair colour: black
Significant Relationships:
Family:
Sakura Tanaka: his sister, works in Kyoto as a fortune teller and keeps sending him packages with food, singing letters and other curious items she picks up at the night markets in Japan.
Tanaka Grandparents: His grandmother, Arashi, was a temple maiden at the Sakura shrine before she married Sen’s grandfather, Kira, and inherited the position of high priestess from her husband’s mother. Kira has never been interested in the spiritual/magical side and has left those matters to his wife while he became a cook. Today he owns and cooks at a very successful restaurant in Kyoto.
Friends:
Von Courtlandt: Sen’s best friend since their first year at Hogwarts. During the last year he has developed a small crush on him but is very deep in denial about that. Sen became the godfather of Von’s son Ezra. He has signed a magical contract in which he swears never to tell anyone about the little boy unless he wants his bits to fall off.
Jojo Jenkins: They met through Von. Jojo is the main reason that Sen didn’t fail miserably at the wand magic subjects and in return he helps the Gryffindor with the theoretical part of their classes.
Nicodemus Florentine: They are roommates and became friends during their first year at Hogwarts. Sen is used to looking out for the other boy who used to get into trouble quite often.
Rowan Foxkith: Rowan is ignorant, elitist, bitchy and a snob. No one (including themselves) actually knows how and why they became friends but they enjoy each others company and don’t care what everyone else thinks about them.
Special Considerations: Such as broom ownership, being an animagus, famous in some form, or a metamorphmagus. All are subject to mod approval. Sen knows quite a bit about Japanese magic based on the Shinto religion, too, that doesn’t rely on wands but uses talismans and amulets. He’s given Von a guardian spirit in the form of a fish. (This won’t play any major role in game, meaning he’s not going to walk around and perform wandless magic all the time.)
COMMUNITY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS -- ONLY ANSWER THE SECTION APPLICABLE TO YOUR CHARACTER
Hogwarts:
Year: 7th
House: Ravenclaw
Why are they in that house? Curiosity and thirst for knowledge have always been a driving force behind Sen’s actions.
Postion: Prefect
ROLEPLAY SAMPLE -- PLEASE ENSURE THAT THIS IS IN THIRD PERSON NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Summer holidays 2005, Taipei, Taiwan
Sen darted around the corner into a small alley and slid underneath the trash canisters. Pressing himself against the ground he tried to get his breathing under control. The shouting came closer and he squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Please, please, please, go away, go away,’ he chanted in his head. Finally, the voices moved away and faded in the distance.
The boy emerged from his hiding place and pushed himself up. His shirt was dirty and slightly torn, a bruise was forming under his left eye and there was a little blood dripping from his nose. With a sigh, he wiped at it with the back of his hand. Why did he subject himself to that again and again? Ah, right, because Nami was the prettiest girl in Taiwan, heck the whole world and she said she loved him and that she didn’t care that he was half Japanese. A grin tugged at the corner of his lips. As long as she didn’t mind, Sen wouldn’t mind the occasional beating from her brothers and cousins. Soon he would graduate and he’d take her with him to England where no one would care whether they were Chinese or Japanese. They’d just be another couple of foreigners; something he could live with.
MOD-ONLY QUESTIONS -- THESE WILL ONLY BE KNOWN TO THE MODS
Character Secrets: none
Character Alliance: none